(a.), poet. ¶ 1. In the Arab world. A. Pre-Islamic and Umayyad periods. Among those endowed with knowledge and with power in ancient Arabia stands the figure of the
s̲h̲āʿir , whose role is often confused with that of the
ʿarrāf (
s̲h̲aʿara and
ʿarafa having the same semantic value: cf. I. Goldziher,
Abhandlungen , i, 3 ff.) and of the
kāhin [
q.v.]. They were credited with the same source of inspiration, the d̲j̲inns (Goldziher,
Die Ǧinnen der Dichter , in
ZDMG, xlv [1891], 685 ff.). However, the
s̲h̲āʿir was, originally, the repository of magical rather than divinatory knowledge; …